Archive for the ‘Creating’ Category

The latest in the hot and highly profitable line of pre-teen supernatural fantasy romance books, "Lightning" tells the story of a young and tragically misunderstood girl with low self-esteem, new to the area and the school, who falls in love with the one mythological being of horror she shouldn't. Author Lyzabeth Mary Sue Powers wrote "Lightning" in segments for herself on her LiveJournal page over the summer of 2008, and was gratified to see such widespread appreciation from her bank account.

Read the first chapter!

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"Lightning" by Lizabeth Powers

Chapter One:

I approached my new school with trepidation borne from past experience. No point in trying to fit in, as my alabaster hair and waifish looks automatically kept me from fitting in to any of the established cliques. My stylish clothes wouldn't fit in here, nor would my professional hair style or my curiously clear teenage skin. I didn't know what the kids at this school would be like, but as my own interests included reading books and brooding I was sure we'd have nothing at all in common.

My mom was oblivious to my concerns, as usual, even though I had provided her with a cross-referenced list (with footnotes), and she kept jabbering on about how we'd make a new life here and how she was sure the new meds would do the trick. I fairly leapt from the car. Around me crowds of teenagers were swarming toward the school. They all knew each other from birth, obviously, and I could see several of them glancing at me. Suddenly I was even more aware of my hideous appearance. I held my books up flat in front of my face and walked on, accepting the occasional fall or brick wall collision as fair payment for my anonymity.

The first few classes were a nightmare. All of the boys – and a few of the girls – kept staring at me the whole time with hungry expressions. Were they so eager to start making fun of me? Six different guys, two girls, and one teacher asked me out for that weekend but I knew they were mocking me so I simply fled. Read the rest of this entry »

Back to funny fantasy. Since I had just gotten into collecting autographs myself, it seemed like a natural thing to give my protagonist my obsession. He was also a sniveling, selfish jerk, but obviously that part was all made up. Ahem. Attempting to liven up his life a little, he clicked on a joke eBay auction only to find it wasn't a joke.

It wasn't a novel, either, but it may be someday. Didn't hit 50k this year, either. I'm slipping. Note the Hiatus references…

The Highest Bidder
by C. A. Bridges

Chapter One – Cons and Pros and Cons

Bought: Kevin Sutton (2); Mark Goddard (1); Erin Gray (2); Playboy Playmate Miss November 2008 Grace Kim (1); George Lowe, voice of Space Ghost (1)

Morton would never have bought the souls in the first place if it hadn't been for the girl with the Captain Crunch box.

As far as Morton Sezlick was concerned, science fiction conventions existed for one reason and one reason only: commerce. You went, you sold, you bought, you moved on. There was a great deal of money to be made if you knew what you were doing, which he did, which was why every minute stuck in this half-mile autograph line that was not moving was driving him crazy with the lingering scent of lost revenue. Almost as maddening as the way the thousands of people currently crowding his space just went around mindlessly having fun all the time in their elaborate costumes of Jedis and Klingons and Browncoats and whatever the hell those big square brown things were with all the teeth. How could anyone enjoy this if they weren't paid to do so?

Despite the best efforts of dedicated fans, convention halls simply were not conducive to the creation of magical science-fantasy worlds. From where Morton stood he could see sad-looking paper-mache emulations of planets and rocket ships, a Mark I Viper made of slightly sagging cardboard, lots of poly-vinyl banners strung from the ceiling, and rows and rows of PVC-and-blue-cloth dividers divvying up the dealers' tables and artist alley booths. It might have helped if the con people could have controlled the environment and only let you you see what they wanted you to see, like a JayCees' haunted house or something, but none of the decorations rose higher than about 10 feet and above that the bland, institutional yellow of the walls stretched for another 20 more before the ductwork and pipes of the ceiling added the capping, fantasy-killing touch. Guests of the con, actors from popular science fiction shows and movies both past and present – the only reason to show up, as far as Morton was concerned – sat against a wall behind a long row of folding tables that were covered in butcher paper so the fans couldn't see the stars' impatient foot-tapping, stashed alcohol, missing underwear, or hidden Blackberrying. Behind each star was a piece of posterboard with their name and credits, in case you weren't sure why you wanted to meet them or couldxn't quite remember where'd you'd seen their face before, especially if it had been covered in makeup and latex tentacles at the time. And you needed to be sure; autograph lines of hundreds of people stretched and curved across the floor, doubling back on themselves to create some sort of intricate, organically changing knot that was broken and reformed repeatedly every time someone dressed as General Grievous or an eight-foot Pac-Man needed to come through. Read the rest of this entry »

I was fortunate enough to do a phone interview with Joss Whedon for my newspaper last Friday on his new Internet musical miniseries "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog."

Click here to hear it!

This is Chris Bridges with the Daytona Beach News-Journal, and I’m talking with Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” the show “Firefly,” the movie “Serenity,” the upcoming FOX show “Dollhouse,” and now an original online musical mini-series, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” Thank you for talking to me.

Thanks for having me.

Go ahead and give me the elevator pitch for “Dr. Horrible.”

There’s an elevator pitch?

I hope so.

I’ve never heard that phrase. Basically it’s your typical Internet musical about a super villain who’s trying to make his bones in the super villain community and get some respect, and maybe even work up the nerve to talk to the girl at the Laundromat.

So, like every other Internet serial musical.

Yeah, you know, I mean it’s a tired genre but I thought I could wring a few bucks out of it before it dies.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday was an interesting day. And I use the word "interesting" with loaded meaning (couldn't find the right smilie to indicate that, so here we are).

High point: finding out with an hour to spare that I would get to do a phone interview with Joss Whedon. All I really remember was that I was focusing on not sounding like a doofus, my painful discovery that it's a big, big mistake to pound down a large Sprite to calm your nerves when you're afraid to leave the phone long enough to pee, and that when he did call and we talked I sounded like a doofus.

With luck it'll appear online Tuesday and in the paper later in the week. Only really new thing in it that I haven't seen anywhere else: the Dr. Horrible episodes will appear on drhorrible.com pretty close to 12:01 am on their launch dates. Didn't get if it was PST, I'm hoping to hear back about that. My favorite quote was when I was asking about his knack for attracting obsessive fans:

"That’s what I am, that’s what I grew up as. The things I love, I love very hard."

Low point: immediately thereafter, when my car blew a head gasket on the way home and my brother-in-law and I spent four fun-filled hours next to Beville Road trying Bars Head Gasket Fix in the desperate hope that mine had blown in just the right way for this to work and save me many hundreds or thousands of dollars that I don't, strictly speaking, have.

Results: I have an interview which I have now transcribed and will tomorrow edit, modulate, and possibly remaster until I sound like David Attenborough, am now working on my article. Car is running well if not smoothly, the oil has been changed, and we'll see how that goes.

All in all, best thing about the weekend? Watching the little videos Teres took of the concert with our camera, where her fangirl shrieks can plainly be heard over the din. She's been blushing nonstop, I'm working on making one of them my Windows startup noise.

I need a new Web service, and I don't think it's other there yet. Nor do I want to set it up myself, I just want to avail myself of its nonexistent services.

I want a plot search engine.

Say I think of a fantastic idea for a story (it could happen). And say I invest time, trouble, and skullsweat into developing that story. How do you think I'll react when I realize, halfway through, that not only has someone already written that story but probably did it better. Pretty darn despondent, that's how.

So to head off that despairfest I'm calling for a plot search. If I want to write about time-traveling monkeys I want to know how many brave writers have gone that road before me, never to be heard of again (answer: 6). I want to type in "Barnard's Star," "alien warfare," "Cheeze Whiz," and "testicle" to see if I'm original or just pulling from the collective unconsciousness.

How tough could it be? All we'd have to do is review every book ever written and enter the plot and publishing info as keywords in a database. There are people online who do that kind of thing for fun.

In the meantime, I'm off to write. Hmm. How would Cheeze Whiz react to microgravity…

Joel Watson of HijinksEnsue.com was away this week and asked Adam and myself if we'd be interested in supplying a guest comic to his geek-friendly strip. We were, and we did.

(Note: our comic today is entirely SFW, previous comics in his archives include NSFW language)

PRESS RELEASE

The Network and What’s the Use Productions have jointly announced that the episode of Hiatus that aired April 18, 2008, will be the final one. Production on the show has halted, and there have been no public plans to carry on with the show in any capacity on The Network or any other venue.

"Hiatus has been an important part of The Network’s history, and Manny Ulrich’s visionary show has broken the boundaries of what television is capable of," said Cornelius Snyvel, Presidential-Adjunct of Entertainment, The Network, in a prepared statement. "We'd like to thank Manny, the incredible cast, and the talented workers who put their hearts and souls into this engaging creation that nonetheless made us less cash for the time slot than a re-rerun of ‘Midgets, Midgets, Midgets.’ It was not an easy decision for us, but we had to go with what was best for our stockholders.

“We hope Manny will make more shows for us,” Snyvel said, before slamming his door and pulling his shades down.

Manny Ulrich could not be reached for comment and may not be aware of the current status of his show. The creative genius of “Mars Cops” and “How Can I Be Pregnant?” is on a sabbatical in the Honduras and should be approached with caution.

Hiatus was introduced as a mid-season replacement in February to cover lost programming during the writers’ strike. Despite being broadcast out of order and regularly pre-empted, Hiatus quickly earned a devoted following of enthusiastic fans. It is unknown at this time what the future holds for this franchise.

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And we've already seen what it's being replaced with.

OK, I couldn't let it die. The show was just too good, too special. And when an insanely talented friend wanted to start a webcomic and needed a writer and a subject, well…

Join Ven, Casey, and their friends as they fight to keep their favorite TV show alive despite network indifference and hostility. Also, other geek stuff. The very first strip was posted a few minutes ago, and I wanted you guys to know about it first because you've always been there for Hiatus in the past. With luck, new strips will appear (starting next week) every Monday and Friday.

There's also a forum to post episode discussions, fan fiction, and fan art, and I hope those of you who have already created some will post it there as well.

Come on over for the launch of the web's newest comic, and help save Hiatus!

www.savehiatus.com

This year I cheated a bit, and worked on adapting a story I had tried doing in screenplay form for ScriptFrenzy, the annual screenwriting equivalent of NaNoWriMo. Didn't help – I still rewrote it to death without actually completing it. This is another I'm definitely coming back to, because some of the stuff I didn't get to write still makes me giggle.

"The Stolen Fairy Tale"
by C. A. Bridges

All imaginary figures, living or dead, are purely coincidental. So are the real people. So, very probably, are you.

Prologue

Heather was as prepared as it was possible to be.

In her room full of brightly colored toys and mobiles, gently used furniture and big fluffy comforters, she was huddled on her bed like an arctic explorer getting up the nerve to leave the tent. She was bundled in her warmest clothing and sturdiest boots. Her knit cap was pulled tight over her ears, and her gloves were tied to her coat sleeves. In the dim light from the window only little bits of her were actually visible through the various folds of cloth; she looked like a stuffed turkey designed by L.L. Bean.

By her feet was her school backpack, emptied and carefully repacked with spare clothes, a flashlight, pebbles for leaving trails, her jump rope in case she needed to climb a mountain or tie up a bad guy, and all the beef jerky in the house. Tucked away in various pockets were band aids, ointment, string, a key made of cold iron, and a whistle that she knew for a fact was very loud indeed. Also batteries, her Instamatic camera, and extra film, for later proof. If she could have gotten her dad's car keys she'd have had flares, but she made do with a box of fireplace matches.

And she had bus fare, because you never knew. Read the rest of this entry »

The January edition of The Writer magazine (on sale now) has a feature on writing flasher stories and there's an entire story on the cover with a familiar byline. Turns out I can write short stories and three years of newspaper columns with little recognition, and a quickie story I wrote for the heck of it for BirdandMoon.com's 55-word challenge gets me the cover. Gotta love it.

Here's the whole thing (but you should buy a copy anyway, for more comments from me and a nice long article on short, short stories). 55 words, not counting the title.

He Met Her

He met her at the club, lights flashing, music battering.

"So, you heard about my job."

"Yeah."

"But you know, I've learned something. With your love, I can go on even without the big bucks."

"I've learned something, too."

"Really?"

"Yes. I'm much more shallow than I thought."

And she smiled, sadly, and walked away.